Cheech & Chong Show Off Their Medicinal Marijuana Cards

Cheech & Chong are back, and now they have medicinal marijuana cards. Their original films and stage shows were rebellious with pot humor in a “straight” world. Now Tommy Chongjust takes his card out of his wallet to show the press he qualifies for medical weed.

“I’ve got my card,” Chong bragged. “Jack Herrera, he wrote The Emperor Wears No Clothes, the first marijuana book out. Him and I, when they changed the law the first time around here, there were no cards or anything so we designed our own card. It was a letter and then we had it shrunk into cards. So that’s the very first.”

Chong’s card references a Dr. Eidelman, in case anyone’s checking. “Yeah, he’s a real doctor,” Chong said. “I went into a club to get some pot and they said, ‘Do you have a card?’ I showed them that. They looked at it and said, ‘Oh, it’s outdated.’ Well, there were no rules. So they phoned the doctor and Eidelman says, ‘Oh yeah, come in and I’ll update your card.’ Yeah, come in and get more money. Yeah, that’s the first card so we do have our medical cards.”

Cheech Marin has a medicinal card too, and the duo are carefully watching the political debate as it nears closer to actually legalizing marijuana. “It’s inevitable,” Marin said. “It’s going to be legal. I think it’s going to be legal on a nationwide basis within three years. It’s the number one cash crop in the world. It’s like outlawing wheat. Come on.”

“You know they’re going to appeal that,” Chong added. “They’re going to pull all that crap. The thing is, if we get even a close vote one way or the other, it’s just going to push the Obama regime into rescheduling it because that really is the answer to legalization. Reschedule the drug to Schedule 2 so it’s available by prescription only.”

You can tell who really did the research though. Chong knows legalized marijuana will be safe. “That’s what they’ve got in Amsterdam now. Now what they do, there’s no penalties, you see. That’s the whole thing. They can enact these laws without penalties without problems. Once you put penalties on it then you can go to court and you can fight it. That’s what they want to do. They want to keep it out of the court because the truth is, this neurosurgeon when we were flying here from Detroit, this neurosurgeon came and visited me at my seat and he says, ‘I want to tell you something. You went to jail and all that. I’m a neurosurgeon. I operate on alcohol related accidents every day. Every day there’s someone got bashed in [because of] alcohol. In my 20 years, I’ve never once operated on a marijuana related accident.’ 20 years, not one. By the way, they did a study that was around Nixon’s time. They did a commission, had a commission do a study. Part of the study was how marijuana affects drivers. They did the study in Toronto and Canada. They found that the marijuana impaired drivers scored higher, the highest, than all the straight drivers. They did. Look it up.”

Cheech & Chong performed stage shows across the country and their new film Cheech & Chong’s Hey Watch This comes out this week. 40 years later, they can still get a buzz.

“You get a different buzz,” Marin said. “It’s a more elite buzz. More expensive.”

Actually, if anything, Cheech and Chong have learned more moderation in their growing wisdom. “I love the argument that it’s a lot stronger now than it was before,” Chong said. “Well, that means you smoke less. Done. And, if you don’t and you do indulge, you pay for it. You find yourself throwing up.”

The film releases in theaters, DVD, Blu Ray and VOD all on the same day. You guessed it, April 20 (that’s 4/20.)